Debt? No doubt!Dear Editor: President Barack Obama and Congress passed a $145 billion payroll tax extension along with other goodies. It sounds great, but the devil is in the details. It illustrates how governmen...

Santorum doesn't grasp energy problems
Dear Editor: The Republicans have found a new cause to champion: the price of gas. Rick Santorum tells us that the spike in oil prices when President Obama took office contributed to the financial ...

Aesop was right on
Dear Editor: It is disconcerting to think of our government as an embezzler cooking the books. Originally, the dollar was more than just a piece of paper with a picture of a president. It represent...

Ten reasons for Paul
Dear Editor: Ten good reasons not to vote for Ron Paul 1) I'm happy with the status quo. 2) Spending levels are where they should be. 3) I prefer candidates that sing to me, flatter me and tell me ...

Nonprofits can afford to payDear Editor: Councilman David Greenfield opposing the city charging so-called private nonprofit groups paying for trash and recycling is disappointing ("Pol: making non-profits pay is pure garbage"...

On the separation of church and state
Dear Editor: Nowhere in the Constitution does it actually say that there is to be a separation of church and state. Religions are protected by the First Amendment, which clearly says “Congress shal...

End the monitoringDear Editor: The Department of Homeland Security's Media Monitoring Initiative gives federal agents the power to gather, store, analyze and disseminate data on millions of users of social media inc...

Economic recovery?
Dear Editor: Our economy is recovering? Not so fast. Those that are publicly declaring that our economy is recovery are ignoring a whole host of issues that indicate that the U.S. economy is in abs...

Convention center potential conflict for polsDear Editor: Many public officials who have endorsed the proposed $4 billion mega-convention center to be built at Aqueduct in South Ozone Park Queens by Genting America may have a clear conflict o...

Dispatcher off on same-sex marriage debate
Dear Editor: In your 2/6 Dispatch section, there was a letter from a Hyman Auslander ("Same-sex marriage already solved"). In it he mocks another writer's earlier contention that there should be "a...

The truth behind rising gas prices
Dear Editor: The reason, and only reason, why gas prices and the price of everything else is going up is because "our" government has wrecked our economy. They do this by inflating our currency (th...

Make abatement work for middle classDear Editor: Every four years, the City of New York extends a program granting most co-ops and condo owners a 17.5 percent abatement on their property taxes. This program aims to lower the effectiv...

City's roadways are trash
Dear Editor: Does Mayor Michael Bloomberg realize the amount of garbage along the highways in Queens? Whatever happened to the "keep our highways beautiful" program we used to see on television as ...

Who's evaluating the evaluation system?Dear Editor: The recent decision by the state and city teacher unions to agree to a new statewide teacher evaluation system certainly is not all that clear. How can anyone really evaluate a teacher...

Breaking News

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Amid anger over an Islamist insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives, Nigerians returned a 72-year-old former military dictator to power Tuesday in the most hotly contested election in the country's history.

The US abandoned late Tuesday a midnight deadline to agree the outlines of a nuclear deal with Iran but insisted that "enough progress" merited extending marathon talks into Wednesday. The announcement came late on a sixth day of talks in Switzerland aimed at laying the groundwork for a deal that world powers hope will prevent Iran developing nuclear weapons under the guise of its civilian programme. The stakes are high, with fears that failure to reach a deal may set the United States and Israel on a road to military action to thwart Iran's nuclear drive, which Tehran says is purely peaceful.